'Brunt of the Yard' and a seven-hour lunch with a top police officer

'What's acceptable in return for help on a story?' Martin Brunt, the crime correspondent at Sky News, asks. 'A drink, lunch, an envelope full of fivers?'

Martin BruntPhoto: REX FEATURES

by Tim Walker

7:00AM BST 25 Jul 2011

Known as "Brunt of the Yard," Martin Brunt, the crime correspondent at Rupert Murdoch's Sky News, was typically first with the story that is now dominating the headlines. "Police corruption has always been a delicate issue for crime hacks," he admitted in an interview four years ago. "What's acceptable in return for help on a story? A drink, lunch, an envelope full of fivers?"

Brunt, 56, who broke the news of the television presenter Jill Dando's murder, would never, of course, stoop to dispensing cash himself, but he admitted to spending "roughly the cost of a case of Chivas Regal" on dinner with a police contact. I once spotted him wining and dining Sir Ian Blair, when he was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, at Shepherd's restaurant, not far from Scotland Yard, and he is clearly a good host. Brunt admitted that one lunch with a "VIP" officer lasted seven hours.

The Sky News website boasts of his "extensive network of contacts," and he knows many officers well. Two of them, Roy Ramm and John O'Connor, both former Scotland Yard commanders, often appear as pundits on Sky News.

Today Brunt, who started out on Power Laundry and Cleaning News before moving to The Sun and the News of the World – "it was so long ago, mobile phones hadn't been invented," he pointed out – regularly visits police forces to coach senior officers in handling the media. "Police officers, and sometimes very senior officers, do me big favours, and I think I should reciprocate – not in every way I can, but I have to be grown up about it," he explained.